The Akwa Ibom State Police Command has arrested an artisan, Henry Silas, 28, for allegedly killing a pathologist, Dr. Ivy Umana, of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, at her home in Shelter Afrique, Uyo.
It was learnt that Umana was to supervise undergraduate medical students on the day she was murdered.
Her colleagues were said to have called her through telephones, but could not get her to speak with them except a senior colleague, Dr. Festus Abasiubong, who received a text message from Umana’s phone requesting that the sum of N20, 000 should be given to Silas.
Abasiubong and his other colleagues were said to have gone to Umanah’s house where they met her lifeless body.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Cordelia Nwawe, said on Monday that the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Murtala Mani, had promised to fish out the killer of the pathologist.
Mani stated that Silas was arrested on May 13 in Aba, Abia State, where he escaped to after committing the murder.
The CP said, “That the said Silas confessed to the crime and stated that he used motor vehicle iron to hit the deceased on her head which caused her death.
“He claimed that the killing was as a result of the disagreement he had with the deceased over payment of N100,000, which he used in buying materials, including money charged for the work.
“That Dr. Festus Abasiubong, also of the UUTH, was the person who introduced him to the deceased to do work for her.
That sometime last year (2015), he did designing work in Dr. Festus Abasiubong’s house at Ikot Ntuen village along Abak Road, Uyo.”
Mani stated that it was established that the aim of the text messages Silas sent to Abasiubong’s cell phone was to create confusion about the whereabouts of the deceased and to divert the attention of her colleagues.
Silas said “I was the one that killed her. We had an agreement on a job, which required that I use my money to start. She asked me to start the job that as soon as I start, she would give me the money.
I started the job on Monday. I bought materials and she said that when she returned from office, she would give me the money.
“When I was about leaving the site, I called her, and she said that she was not coming back to the site that day. So, I left, I later called her on Tuesday, in which she asked me to come back on Wednesday morning.
“I went there on Wednesday at 7:30am. I waited for her for a long time to come out and open the gate for me. She later opened the gate for me after I repeatedly knocked at the gate.
“She started complaining that I was disturbing her. She was behaving as if she was not going to pay me for the job. And I asked her why she was behaving as if she was not going to pay me.
“The next thing she did was to slap me, pushed me away and closed the door. I fell and with the annoyance, I saw iron beside me, I used it to hit her on her head and she fell and died.”
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